Paciolan, StubHub launch ticket partnership

Paciolan and StubHub have agreed to a partnership in which StubHub’s secondary ticketing functionality is
offered with Paciolan’s primary ticketing systems for college football and
basketball.

Financial terms of the deal
were not disclosed, but the multiyear pact is based heavily on revenue sharing
of secondary ticket commissions earned through the partnership, officials said.

The deal starts with a slow
rollout this football season at Florida State and Purdue, two of Paciolan’s 98
college sports accounts. More schools are expected to go online for basketball
season, said Paciolan CEO Dave Butler.

Paciolan clients are not
required to use the new program and have the option to stick with their own
resale operations, Butler said.

Sixteen schools currently use
Paciolan’s own Ticket Marketplace system, which allows season-ticket holders to
resell tickets. FSU and Purdue are not among them, said Craig Ricks, Paciolan’s
director of marketing.

For athletic departments
choosing the Paciolan-StubHub alliance, every ticket resold through the
partnership will be delivered electronically through an immediate transfer of
barcodes.

The buyer prints the tickets
on his computer, and the ticket seller is paid in a safe, secure environment,
officials said.

That confidence for buyers
and sellers to make transactions is a point of distinction, company officials
said. StubHub has its own patented guarantee for doing business on the
secondary market, and Paciolan’s technology on the back end prevents mistakes
such as sending e-tickets for the wrong game.

The integration also allows
StubHub to resell tickets until the day of the game compared with overnight
delivery models where tickets are taken down 72 hours before the event, Ricks
said.

“This is a huge step for us,”
said Danielle Maged, StubHub head of partnerships and business development.
“It’s a great marriage of serving both the client and the consumer. Given that
everything in this is electronic, it allows us to do so much more in that last
48 hours before an event.”

The deal also further extends
StubHub’s push into college sports. The eBay-owned outfit has aggressively
targeted the college market on its own recently and now has 18 separate deals
with schools, conferences and basketball tournaments.

Butler said the partnership
is good for participating schools, as well. It provides a new service to
season-ticket holders, and the institutions can build a database of new
prospects tied to the secondary market.

He added that for existing
season-ticket holders who are unable to attend every home game, the deal
provides additional confidence for them to renew for the following season
knowing that there is a convenient method to resell their tickets that is
supported by the university.

Paciolan is a subsidiary of
Comcast-Spectacor.

In the case of Purdue, the
school is already a StubHub partner, but Purdue does not fulfill secondary
ticket orders on its own, said Barb Kapp, associate athletic director for
marketing, ticketing and technology.

The new deal provides a more seamless process
for Purdue’s season-ticket holders in addition to generating incremental
revenue for the athletic department, Kapp said.